RICHMOND — “Ask Questions...Get Answers... Give Feedback” was the theme of three open forums hosted by Barry Ricci, superintendent of Chariho Schools, in Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton this week.

RICHMOND — “Ask Questions...Get Answers... Give Feedback” was the theme of three open forums hosted by Barry Ricci, superintendent of Chariho Schools, in Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton this week.

In Richmond on Tuesday night, about 25 residents tackled topics ranging from how the 1:1 Initiative might affect curriculum to why bus routes are designated by the Chariho Act to details about the school budget surplus. Ricci was amiable and addressed all issues except anything to do with personnel and individual students, which he explained in advance that he would not be able to talk about.

The evening began with questions about the 1:1 Initiative, a program that would provide every high school student and faculty member with a personal computing device and would gradually replace textbooks with electronic versions.

Ricci said that even though teachers had received their devices, students would not receive laptops until the school’s wireless infrastructure had been upgraded.

“We will not issue devices until we upgrade the bandwidth infrastructure. We have been awarded a $360,000 grant from the department of education to do that,” he said.
Ricci explained that teachers would use their laptops to “create their own content” for their classes, which raised concern among several audience members that teachers would present personally biased content instead of “facts” as presented by textbooks.